Vaishnava Jana To


Vaishnava Jana To is a Hindu bhajan, written in the 15th century by the poet Narsinh Mehta in the Gujarati language. The poem speaks about the life, ideals and mentality of a Vaishnava jana.

Influence

This devotional hymn became popular during the life time of Mahatma Gandhi and was rendered as a bhajan in his Sabarmati Ashram by vocalists and instrumentalists like Gotuvadyam Narayana Iyengar. It was popular among freedom fighters throughout India. Often sung by singers since then, it serves as the final song to end a concert and touch music lovers with the philosophical thought of poet Narsinh Mehta.

Lyrics

In popular culture

Elements of the hymn were included in the British film Gandhi, in Bollywood films like Water, Cheeni Kum and Road to Sangam, and Kollywood film Hey Ram. The hymn was also used as a title song for several Indian films. In the Telugu movie Prathinidhi, the first stanza of the song is used during the climactic scene. In the Malayalam movie Indian Rupee, the first stanza of the song is used in the climactic scene and sung by Bombay Jayashri. The song also appears in the Gujarati biopic of the author Kuvar bainu Mameru. A Bengali adaptation of the song by Anindya Chatterjee was sung by Shreya Ghoshal in the Bengali movie Gotro.
In 1998, this song was rendered in a single album by artists such as classical vocalists Gangubai Hangal and Pandit Jasraj, pop singer Remo Fernandes and also including Sarod musician Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Narayan on the sarangi, flute musician Hariprasad Chaurasia and santoor exponent Shivkumar Sharma played an instrumental rendition.
On 2 October 2018, musicians from 124 countries performed the song to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi.